U.S. REPS WANT SATELLITE RECEIVERS TO HANDLE OTHER TECHS LIKE HD AND NET RADIO: Two powerful Congressmen insist that if XM and Sirius are allowed to merge, satellite radio devices must accommodate other technologies like HD Radio and Internet access in receivers. Last week House Commerce Committee chairman John Dingell (D-MI, at right) and Telecomm Subcommittee chairman Ed Markey (D-MA, on the left) wrote a letter to FCC chairman Kevin Martin listing various measures that would make FCC approval of the satellite radio merger more palatable. Most notably, they suggest a single satellite radio entity be required to permit any manufacturer to develop equipment to access satellite radio, and that those manufacturers be allowed to include other technology in the devices, including “HD radio technology, iPod ports, Internet connectivity or other technology.”

NEW FACE FOR AOL RADIO EUROPE: LAST.FM: As part of a partnership between CBS (which now owns Last.fm) and AOL, AOL Europe has replaced its Internet radio services with a private-labeled version of Last.fm. Wired’s “Listening Post” reports (here) the new service is “currently accessible by AOL Europe subscribers in France, Germany and the UK, as well as anyone else who goes to radio.aol.co.uk, for free… For AOL Europe, the deal represents a simple way to offer music without suffering through the rights and royalties process.” Last week, AOL Radio Canada replaced its service with the AOL-owned Shoutcast aggregation service (see RAIN here).

KATZ RADIO GOES 360: Katz Radio Group has created a new digital sales division which will tie in its Katz Net Radio Sales with Katz Mobile, Katz Database, and Ando Media (a Katz partner). Katz 360 is designed to offer “national advertisers the ability to reach their target audiences through several different channels, which include on-air, online, HD and mobile.” Brian Benedik (pictured), formerly the President of KRG’s Christal Radio, was named President of Katz 360 Sales. Katz Net Radio Sales remains under the direction of Jennifer Lane. As MediaPost reports (here), this is the latest in a series of industry moves to incorporate digital into traditional media sales forces (Ronning Lipset Radio added to its executive team with new hires from XM and Yahoo Music; Emmis spun off Emmis Interactive; and the RAB has announced it will restructure to enhance radio’s digital offerings.).

APPLE REPORTEDLY IMPROVES NET RADIO ON APPLE TV DEVICE: Several bloggers are reporting that Apple has made improvements to how its Apple TV device streams Internet radio from iTunes. AppleTvSource has some info on the 2.0.2 update for the Apple TV device, and a list of steps to help get users up and running. But apparently, there are still a few snags in the process. Apple TV is a popular and easy-to-use device to port digital audio and video files from a computer to a home entertainment system.

“THUMBS-UP FOR ONLINE SIT-COM ABOUT NET RADIO: A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette piece (here) on online video comedies and dramas showing a growing “maturity in writing (and) concepts” references a sit-com about Internet radio. HotSnackRadio is a 12-part comedy series from Canadian producers Showcase (we wrote about the series at its premiere here).

Comment

1. Where’s this pressure to inflict state sponsored jamming, known euphemistically as ‘HD’, upon public airwaves?

   Or is it as simple as the fact that the HD gang blurred reality yet again? Did they convince the congressmen that ‘HD’ is the same as regular legitimate non-jamming AM & FM? Why wouldn’t they? Wouldn’t it best serve their twisted purposes, to the detriment of competing broadcasters and citizens? Paul Vincent Zecchino Manasota Key, Florida 06 May, 2008

   — paul vincent zecchino · May 6, 07:11 AM · #

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